| |
Meet the Tiger
Characteristics of the Tiger:
- Adults are solitary hunters.
- Males and females come together only to mate.
- Tigers are not picky eaters; they can go many days without food.
- These animals have excellent night vision, great hearing, good pouncing
ability, strong jaws and patience -- characteristics for hunting.
- The tiger hunts at night, even though they are also active during the day.
- Tigers are excellent climbers, good swimmers and fast runners.
- Tigers not only have stripes on their fur, but also on their skin. These
stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the same pattern of
stripes.
- A tiger can consume as much as 40 kg (88 lb.) of meat in one feeding.
- White tigers are a variant of Bengal tigers and are rarely found in the
wild anymore.
Distribution:
- Tigers live in a variety of habitats in Asia, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar.
- Tigers are generally found in rain forests, dry and mixed deciduous forests, evergreen forests, mangrove
swamps, grasslands and savannah.
- The estimated wild population is approximately 5,000 - 7,000.
Threats:
- Almost every part of the tiger -- bones, eyes, and even whiskers -- is
valued in East Asia for medical practices. Tiger parts are used to cure or
ease human ailments, make people live longer and aid in sexual performance.
This demand for tiger products causes tigers to be hunted for their parts and has been detrimental to
maintaining a stable population.
- Although the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species
(CITES) banned trafficking of tiger parts in 1975, global sales of Asian
tinctures still pose the greatest threat to tiger populations throughout Asia.
- In the early 1900s, about 100,000 tigers were in the Asian forests.
- Human pressures from hunting and habitat destruction exterminated the
Bali, Caspian, and Javan tigers.
Protection Efforts:
- Wildlife Conservation Society works to protect tigers throughout their range, operating field projects in India, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Russian Far East.
- Dr. K. Ullas Karanth, conservation zoologist of the Wildlife Conservation Society is one of India's pre-eminent tiger experts, and has been an active conservationist in southern India for the past 20 years.
- 21 public parks exist to protect the tigers. India's concentrated effort to save the tigers began in 1972 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when she started "Project Tiger".
- Eco-Tourism
may also be contributing to tiger conservation.
- In addition to government sponsored programs, non-profits, such as the Sierra Club's Saving Wild
Tigers volunteers, have embarked on ambitious programs to earmark priority areas for tigers, and protect them.
Cool Links
More Big Cat Fun
Wildlife Conservation Society |
Meet the Jaguar |
Meet the Snow Leopard
Cat Slide Show |
Trivia Archive |
Fact Archive |
Tell a Cat |
Useful Links
The Race for the Big Cats is a joint effort of Care2.com and the Wildlife
Conservation Society.
All rights reserved.
|
|
